Worked on getting engine put together this weekend. I scored the old valve covers from my friend Bob and the air cleaner, I kinda stumbled onto. After painting the engine, I finished the detail painting in the fins of both. The old aluminum polished up rather nicely. Installed the harmonic damper and the water pump and buillt up a nice little hard line for the fuel system. The carb in the pic is for mockup, as I'm using a vacuum sec. 750 Holley. Hey, notice the cool wingnut!
Those Gauges are super sweet! What a great build thread... Can't believe I've missed this one. Glad I found it now! Cheers, Robert M.
Needed to finish putting the gauges together, so I could move on to the engine install. I took a little silicone and glued the new glass to the scrubbed clean bezels. After sanding all the old paint off the trim ring, I brushed some One-Shot Ivory (matched the factory color perfectly) I then put everything together and then set them in place to see how they looked. Wow!!! Now I'll take them back out and paint the whole back half of the bezel black, so it looks like the gauge is floating!
Digging this build so far! If you don't mind me asking, what kind of investment do you have in it so far?
Way too cool! Sorry it took so long to react, out punching louvers (104 deg. in my shop today!) And answering questions for customers. Gotta get everything done so I can go to LARS on Fri, ya know! I hate to sound like a simpleton, but the what are the "drive park city pass" referring to? It looks from the earlier pictures like they light up...
I really have no idea what those lights were. I need research it a bit. Was going to use one of them for my high beam light!
I need to put the pics up, but I put the engine and trans into the chassis and finished my steering column!
Awesome build thread. Your attention to detail and the way you do stuff inexpensively is a huge inspiration. thanks man - Joe
VERY,VERY IMPRESSIVE build,and low buck, If you chop the top you will loose the old style "charm" of this truck, leave well alone the cabs are small enough as std.
Super work,, I may have to attack some gauges that I have,, don't know if I have the skill requirements. Inspirational build, You are the man.
Babyearl - The only way you get the skill is to do it. A couple of years ago, a client asked me if I could fix his speedometer - I shrugged my shoulders and said, "I don't know". I got a non desirable junker,(on MY time) pulled it apart, fixed it and low and behold - fixed my clients. It's all pretty easy if you give it a shot on something you DON'T highly value. Brad your kickin' some ass on this one! Glad to be privileged to see some advance photos photos the other day when we were texting like teenagers!Technology is kinda fun sometimes....
Hey Baby, those were my FIRST set of gauges! Not as tough as I thought it would be. More stuff! I installed the engine and trans in last weekend and so far, so good. I threw the headers on to check a couple areas around the brake lines to see if I had any clearance issues. I'll paint the exhaust system and bolt it back on shortly. While I was painting motor mount brackets and some other odds and ends chassis black, I stripped the column down so I could paint it too Now me being a bit quirky, I couldn't just leave it alone. I took both the signal and shift levers off and bent them inboard away from the wheel (I heated up the shifter 'cuz it is pretty heavy duty) and then cut them down to where they were out to about the edge of the wheel. I had the old red metalflake shift knob and knew it had a home! I proceeded to grind the end of the rod down to about 7/16" in diameter about 3/4" inboard. I needed to run a die on the and it was the biggest I had, hence the grinding. I put threads on it about 1/4" in (it's all I really needed) and then got creative! I rubbed oil all over the threads and about an inch up the rod. Did the same thing around the outer edge of the ball away from the threaded area. I mixed up some 4 minute JB Weld and put a big glob of it in the shift knob (I mounted it in the vise with hole facing up). I then pushed the threaded end of the rod into the knob end and wiping off the excess before it kicked off, held it vertical 'till it kicked off. Once it did, I let it dry for about 15 minutes and then CAREFULLY unscrewed the knob from the shaft! I did the same thing on the blinker side, but used an old truck toggle extension that was also metalflake. After cleaning the oil off the rods, I painted them Hi-Heat flat black and then polished them up with just my hands and it gives them a nice burnished, grey look. I then put everything back together, screwed on my new knobs and on to the next project!
I just finished this in the the interior. Found this sound deadening material on Ebay (Fatmat 80 mil.) for less than $100 to do the whole interior (including the roof and inside both doors) With the added insulation of the carpet padding and carpet, it should be cozy and somewhat quiet enough to crank the stereo!
You know, this thing would be done by now if you stopped paying so much attention to the details! I need to stop by one of these days......
How was the adhesion on the insulation matting? I've used a few that work well on floors but just don't do well on firewalls and ceilings.
Cleaned it up real good, rinsed it out and blew it all good with the air hose. Its not going anywhere. Pretty sticky stuff!
Good to hear. I checked out their website and looks like awesome stuff. The price is great too. Thanks for posting it. Great build btw!
The Jalopy Journal
